(a) Limit.
(1) (A) No office development may be approved during any approval period if the additional office space in that office development, when added to the additional office space in all other office developments previously approved during that approval period, would exceed 950,000 square feet or any lesser amount resulting from the application of Section 321.1. To the extent the total square footage allowed in any approval period is not allocated, the unallocated amount shall be carried over to the next approval period.
(B) For the one-year approval period that commences in October 2020, the Large Cap Maximum shall be permanently reduced by a percentage equal to the percentage by which the total of New Affordable Housing Units Produced in the City during the five calendar years of 2015-2019 is less than the combined total of five years of the Annual RHNA Affordable Housing Goal (i.e., 10,210 units). In no case shall operation of this Subsection (a)(1)(B) act to increase the office development permitted pursuant to Subsection (a)(1)(A).
(C) Thereafter, for the one-year approval period that commences in October 2021 and for all subsequent annual approval periods, the Large Cap Maximum for each single year shall be permanently reduced by a percentage equivalent to the percentage by which New Affordable Housing Units Produced in the City during the single complete calendar year prior to the calendar year in which the approval period commenced is less than the annual RHNA Affordable Housing Goal. In no case shall operation of this Subsection (a)(1)(C) act to increase the office development permitted pursuant to Subsection (a)(1)(A).
(2) The following amounts of additional office space shall count against the maximum set in Subsection (a)(1):
(A) All additional office space in structures for which the first building or site permit is approved for issuance during the approval period and which will be located on land under the jurisdiction of the San Francisco Port Commission or under the jurisdiction of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency; provided, however, that no account shall be taken of structures which are exempt under Section 320(g)(2);
(B) The amount of added additional office space approved after the effective date of this ordinance in structures which are exempt under Section 320(g)(3);
(C) All additional office space in structures owned or otherwise under the jurisdiction of the State of California, the federal government or any State, federal or regional government agency, which structures are found to be otherwise exempt from this Section 321 or Section 322 by force of other applicable law;
(D) All additional office space in structures exempt under Section 320(g)(4) or 320(g)(6) or the last sentence of Section 175.1(b), or which satisfy the substantive terms of either of said exemptions but for which the first building or site permit is authorized or conditional use or variance approved by the Planning Commission after June 15, 1985 but before the effective date of this ordinance.
The additional office space described in Subsection (a)(2)(A) shall be taken into account with respect to all proposed office developments which are considered after the first site or building permit is approved for issuance for the described project. The additional office space described in Subsections (a)(2)(B) and (a)(2)(D) shall be taken into account with respect to all proposed office developments which are considered during the approval period and after the project or the added additional office space is first authorized or a conditional use or variance approved by the Planning Commission. The additional office space described in Subsection (a)(2)(C) shall be taken into account with respect to all proposed office developments which are considered during the approval period and after commencement of construction of the described structures. Modification, appeal or disapproval of a project described in this Section shall affect the amount of office space counted under this Section in the time and manner set forth for office developments in Section 321(c).
(3) The Planning Department shall maintain and shall make available for reasonable public inspection a list showing:
(A) All office developments and all projects subject to Section 321(a)(2) for which application has been made for a project authorization or building or site permit and, if applicable, the date(s) of approval and of approval for issuance of any building or site permit;
(B) The total amount of additional office space and, if applicable, replacement office space, approved with respect to each listed development;
(C) Approved office developments (i) which are subsequently disapproved on appeal; (ii) the permit for which expires or is cancelled or revoked pursuant to Subsection (d)(1) of this Section; or (iii) the approval of which is revoked pursuant to Subsection (d)(2) of this Section; and
(D) Such other information as the Department may determine is appropriate.
(4) Not less than six months before the last date of the approval period, the Planning Department shall submit to the Board of Supervisors a written report, which report shall contain the Planning Commission's recommendation with respect to whether, based on the effects of the limitation imposed by this Section on economic growth and job opportunities in the City, the availability of housing and transportation services to support additional office development in the City, office vacancy and rental rates, and such other factors as the Commission shall deem relevant, there should continue to be a quantitative limit on additional office space after the approval period, and as to what amount of additional office space should be permitted under any such limit.
(5) Every holder of a site permit issued on or after July 1, 1982 for any office development, as defined in Section 320(g) without regard to Subsections (g)(2) through (g)(5), shall provide to the Planning Commission reports containing data and information with respect to the following:
(A) Number of persons hired for employment either in construction of the development or, to the extent such information is available to the permittee, by users of the completed building;
(B) The age, sex, race and residence, by City, of each such person;
(C) Compensation of such persons, classified in $5,000 increments, commencing with annualized compensation of $10,000;
(D) The means by which each such person most frequently travels to and from the place of employment.
Such reports shall commence on October 1, 1985 and continue quarterly thereafter during the approved period. A report containing information by quarter for the period between July 1, 1982 and the effective date of the ordinance shall be submitted not later than December 31, 1985. The Planning Commission shall have full access to all books, records and documents utilized by any project sponsor in preparation of the written reports referred to above, and shall inspect such books, records and documents from time to time for purposes of authenticating information contained in such reports.
(6) Central SoMa Plan Area. This Subsection (a)(6) shall apply within the boundaries of the Central SoMa Special Use District, as established and described in Planning Code Sec. 249.78.
(A) Additional Limitations on Office Development. No more than a total of 6,000,000 square feet of office space shall be approved in office developments within the Central SoMa Plan Area, after January 1, 2019, until a combined total of at least 15,000 new housing units have been Produced within the South of Market Neighborhood, as delineated in the Neighborhood Boundaries Map contained within the Department of City Planning’s May 2011 “San Francisco Neighborhoods Socio-Economic Profiles” report, after January 1, 2019 (the “South of Market Neighborhood”). Space in individual projects that contain less than 50,000 square feet of office space shall neither be subject to, nor contribute to, the footage limit described in this Subsection (a)(6)(A).
(B) Jobs-Housing Balance Monitoring. On or before October 17, 2020, and on an annual basis thereafter, the Planning Department shall publish an inventory of the number of housing units Produced that may be credited under this Subsection.
(C) Central SoMa Incentive Reserve. Notwithstanding the limit specified in Subsection (a)(1), the Planning Commission may approve up to an additional 1,700,000 square feet in total of office space located in the Central SOMA Special Use District. A proposed office development may only be approved pursuant to this Subsection (a)(6)(C) if all of the following criteria are satisfied:
(i) The Preliminary Project Assessment application for the proposed office development was submitted prior to September 11, 2019;
(ii) The proposed office development contains more than 49,999 square of additional office space;
(iii) The amount of office space in the proposed office development exceeds the square footage available pursuant to Subsection (a)(1) in the current approval period;
(iv) Any current or prior phase of the project of which the proposed office development is a part satisfies any of the following criteria:
(a) Includes a parcel on-site or off-site in the South of Market Neighborhood of no less than 10,000 square feet to be deeded to the City for future development of affordable housing;
(b) Includes community arts PDR space or neighborhood-serving retail space of no less than 10,000 square feet that will be affordable to such tenants at no more than 60% of comparable market rent for no less than 30 years.
(c) Includes funding and construction of a new or replacement City public safety facility of no less than 10,000 square feet on-site or off-site in the South of Market Neighborhood.
(v) Approval of the proposed office development would not cause the total amount of additional office development approved in the Central SoMa Plan Area to exceed the 6,000,000 square foot total allowed by Subsection (a)(6)(A).
(7) Office Jobs/Affordable Housing Balance Incentive Reserve. At the election of a project sponsor, the Planning Commission may grant an authorization for a proposed office development notwithstanding the limit specified in Subsection (a)(1) if all of the following criteria are satisfied:
(A) The proposed office development contains more than 49,999 square of additional office space.
(B) The proposed project of which the office development is a component includes development of New Affordable Housing units in an amount no less than 100% of the New Affordable Housing Units required to house the future employees of the proposed project’s office development in accordance with the City’s Affordable Housing Demand Ratio, and such units are either: (a) on-site, or (b) located off-site within a Community of Concern as designated by the Board of Supervisors and developed pursuant to a requirement included in a development agreement authorized by Government Code Section 65865 or any successor Section for the proposed office development. If the project sponsor elects to satisfy Section 415.5 of the Planning Code by payment of an Affordable Housing Fee to the City, then one-half (50%) of the New Affordable Housing Units credited to satisfaction of that inclusionary housing requirement by payment of the Fee in accordance with Subsection 515.5(b)(C) shall also be counted toward satisfaction of this Subsection (a)(7)(B). For projects developed in multiple phases as provided in an approved development agreement authorized by Government Code Section 65865 or any successor Section, the total of all New Affordable Housing Units required to be Produced by the development agreement in all phases shall be considered in evaluating a project sponsor's application for an allocation of office space pursuant to this Subsection (7) at any time.
(C) No other City of San Francisco Affordable Housing Development Funding will be used to fund capital development costs of such affordable housing component of the project.
(8) Additional office space in projects approved pursuant to Subsections (a)(6)(C) and (a)(7) shall be deducted from the amount otherwise available pursuant to Subsection (a)(1) in equal annual increments of one-tenth of such approved additional office space per year over a ten year period. The first such deduction shall occur at the outset of the approval period that commences following approval of the proposed project, and the nine subsequent deductions shall occur annually at the outset of each approval period thereafter, until the proposed project’s entire allocation of additional office space has been deducted from the ten subsequent approval periods.
(b) Guidelines.
(1) During the approval period, the Planning Commission, and the Board of Supervisors and Board of Appeals on appeal from the Planning Commission shall approve, within the allowable limit, subject to Subsection (b)(2) of this Section, only those office developments which they shall determine in particular promote the public welfare, convenience and necessity, and shall be empowered under this Section to disapprove the remainder. The Planning Department shall issue to office developments so approved, in accord with Sections 320 through 323 of this Code, a project authorization.
(2) The following proposed office developments, subject to all other applicable sections of this Code and other applicable law, shall be approved under this Section in preference to all others:
(A) All proposed developments to the extent approval is required by court order; and, thereafter,
(B) Subject to Subsection (a)(1) of this Section, all proposed office developments which were approved by the Planning Commission during the approval period, but subsequently disapproved by any administrative appellate body or court, if and when said disapproval is later reversed.
(3) In determining which office developments best promote the public welfare, convenience and necessity, the Board of Supervisors, Board of Appeals and Planning Commission shall consider:
(A) Apportionment of office space over the course of the approval period in order to maintain a balance between economic growth, on the one hand, and housing, transportation and public services, on the other;
(B) The suitability of the proposed office development for its location, and any effects of the proposed office development specific to that location;
(C) Whether the proposed project includes development of New Affordable Housing Units such that all of the following criteria are satisfied:
(i) The New Affordable Housing units are on-site or located within a Community of Concern as designated by the Board of Supervisors;
(ii) The New Affordable Housing Units will be developed pursuant to a requirement included in a development agreement authorized by Government Code Section 65865 or any successor section for the proposed office development;
(iii) The number of New Affordable Housing Units is no less than 100% of the New Affordable Housing Units required to house the future employees of the proposed project’s office development in accordance with the City’s Affordable Housing Demand Ratio.
(D) The extent to which the project incorporates Community Improvements that exceed the requirements of zoning and City ordinances applicable to the project. “Community Improvement(s)” include construction, financing, land dedication, or land exchanges for the creation of any of the following facilities: community-serving facilities, including without limitation, childcare facilities, tot lots, community gardens, parks, indoor and outdoor neighborhood-oriented plazas and open space, neighborhood recreation centers, dog parks, public safety facilities, affordable space for community-serving retail services and food markets, and affordable space for community arts and cultural activities.
(4) Reserve for Smaller Buildings. In each approval period at least 75,000 square feet of office development shall be reserved for buildings between 25,000 and 49,999 square feet in gross floor area of office development. To the extent the total square footage allowed under this Subsection in any approval period is not allocated, the unallocated amount shall be carried over to the next approval period and added only to the Reserve for Smaller Buildings.
(5) With respect to any office development which shall come before the Board of Supervisors for conditional use review, that Board shall consider, in addition to those criteria made applicable by other provisions of law, the criteria specified in Subsection (b)(3). As to any such office development, the decision of the Board of Supervisors with respect to the criteria specified in Subsection (b)(3) shall be a final administrative determination and shall not be reconsidered by the Planning Commission or Board of Appeals.
(6) The Planning Commission shall establish procedures for coordinating review of project authorization applications under Section 322 with review under Section 309 of this Code. The Commission may hold hearings under Sections 309 and 322 in such sequence as it may deem appropriate, but may not issue any project authorization until the requirements of Section 309 have been satisfied.
(c) Appeal and Modification.
(1) If an approved office development is disapproved, or if a previously unapproved office development is approved, by a court or appellate agency, the list described in Subsection (a)(3) of this Section shall be revised accordingly at the time that the period for rehearing before the appellate body in question shall have lapsed. Approval on appeal of any office development, if conditioned on disapproval of another office development which was previously approved, shall not be effective before the time for rehearing with respect to the disapproval shall have lapsed.
(2) The amount of additional office space of any development shall not count against the maximum for the approval period, beginning from the time the office development loses its approved status on the Planning Department list under Subsection (c)(1); provided, however, that if a decision disapproving an office development permits construction of a part of the project, the permitted additional office space only shall continue to count against the maximum, unless and until all building or site permits for the development expire or are cancelled, revoked or withdrawn.
(3) Any modification of an approved office development, including, without limitation, modification by a court or administrative appellate agency, shall be governed by this Subsection, subject, in the case of a court order, to Subsection (b)(2)(A).
(A) Any office development which is modified for any reason after it is first approved so as to increase its amount of additional office space shall lose its approved status on the list described in Subsection (a)(3) at the time such modification is approved, and may be approved as modified only subject to the limits of Subsection (a)(1). Such a modified development shall not be constructed or carried out based on its initial approval. Approval on appeal of such a modified development, if approval would violate the maximum set forth in Subsection (a)(1) of this Section but for disapproval of another previously approved office development, shall not be effective, nor grounds for reliance, until the time for rehearing with respect to the disapproval shall have lapsed.
(B) An approved office development may be modified so as to reduce the amount of additional office space, subject to all authorizations otherwise required by the City. No additional office space shall become available for any other development during the approval period on account of such a modification, unless the modification is required by any appellate administrative agency or a court, in which case additional office space shall become available when the time for rehearing has lapsed.
(d) Unbuilt Projects; Progress Requirement.
(1) The maximum amount of additional office space for the approval period shall be increased by the amount of such space included in office developments which were previously approved during the period but for which during such period an issued site or building permit has been finally cancelled or revoked, or has expired, with the irrevocable effect of preventing construction of the office development.
(2) Construction of an office development shall commence within 18 months of the date the project is first approved, or, in the case of development in the C-3-O(SD) District the development shall commence within three (3) years. Notwithstanding the above provision, office projects larger than 500,000 gross square feet in the C-3-O(SD) District shall commence construction within five (5) years. Failure to begin work within that period, or thereafter to carry the development diligently to completion, shall be grounds to revoke approval of the office development. Neither the Department of Building Inspection nor the Board of Appeals shall grant any extension of time inconsistent with the requirements of this Subsection (d)(2).
(3) The Department of Building Inspection shall notify the Planning Department in writing of its approval for issuance and issuance of a site or building permit for any office development, and for any development under the jurisdiction of the Successor Agency to the Redevelopment Agency of the City and County of San Francisco or the Port Commission subject to Section 321(a)(2), and of the revocation, cancellation, or expiration of any such permit.
(Added by Ord. 414-85, App. 9/17/85; amended by Proposition M, 11/4/86; Ord. 182-12
, File No. 120665, App. 8/8/2012, Eff. 9/7/2012; Ord. 188-15
, File No. 150871, App. 11/4/2015, Eff. 12/4/2015; Proposition E, 3/3/2020, Eff. 4/17/2020)
AMENDMENT HISTORY
Division (d)(2) amended; Ord. 182-12
, Eff. 9/7/2012. Divisions (d)(2) and (d)(3) amended; other nonsubstantive changes; Ord. 188-15
, Eff. 12/4/2015. Division (a)(1) redesignated as (a)(1)(A); divisions (a)(1)(B)-(C) and (a)(6)-(a)(8) added; former divisions (b)(3)(B)-(C) and (b)(3)(E)-(G) deleted; former division (b)(3)(D) redesignated as (b)(3)(B); divisions (b)(3)(C)-(D) added; Proposition E, 3/3/2020, Eff. 4/17/2020.